Measuring Urban Sustainability
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MEASURING URBAN SUSTAINABILITY Analysis of the European Green Capital Award 2010 & 2011 application round 1 The authors of the European Green Capital Award 2010 & 2011 report are: Maria Berrini and Lorenzo Bono, Ambiente Italia (www.ambienteitalia.it) The report has been reviewed by the following members of the European Green Capital Award 2010 & 2011 Evaluation Panel: o Birgit Georgi European Environment Agency Indicator area(s): Sustainable land use and availability of public open areas o Matthias Ketzel Danish National Environmental Research Institute Indicator area(s): Quality of local ambient air o J. Luis Bento Coelho Instituto Superior Técnico (TU Lisbon) Indicator area(s): Noise pollution o P.J. Rudden Irish consultancy RPS Group Indicator area(s): Waste production & management o Beate Werner European Environment Agency Indicator area(s): Water consumption & Waste water management o Henrik Gudmundsson Technical University of Denmark Indicator area(s): Local mobility and passenger transportation Full responsibility for the content of the report lies with Ambiente Italia (research and consultancy, Italy). May, 2010 2 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 4 2. LOCAL CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ....................................... 7 3. LOCAL MOBILITY AND PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION ..................................... 12 4. SUSTAINABLE LAND USE AND AVAILABILITY OF LOCAL PUBLIC OPEN AREAS .. 17 5. QUALITY OF LOCAL AMBIENT AIR ...................................................................... 22 6. NOISE POLLUTION ............................................................................................. 27 7. WASTE PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT ...................................................... 30 8. WATER CONSUMPTION AND WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT ......................... 34 9. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF THE LOCAL AUTHORITY ........................ 39 3 Theoretical framework for the Award 1. INTRODUCTION The title rewards a number of different elements of environmental achievements in a city. The evaluation criteria are based on the The European Green Capital Award, following 3 aspects: background and objectives 1. The 'greenest' city The European Green Capital Award (EGCA) is The Award rewards the 'greenest' city in the result of an initiative taken by 15 European Europe based on the city's state of the cities and the Association of Estonian cities in environment as defined by the performance May 2006 in Tallinn. The 15 cities were Tallinn levels relative to each of the proposed itself, Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Berlin, Warsaw, indicators. Madrid, Ljubljana, Prague, Vienna, Kiel, Kotka, 2. Implementation of efficient and innovative Dartford, Tartu and Glasgow. The initiative was measures & future commitment turned into a joint Memorandum submitted to The Award rewards the city that has the European Commission in which they implemented the most innovative and efficient proposed the establishment of an award environmental measures and which has shown rewarding cities that are leading the way in that it is committed to do the same in the environmentally friendly urban living. future. The aim of the award is to promote urban 3. Communication and networking sustainability and the sharing of best practices The Award rewards a city which can act as a between cities. role model and inspire other cities to boost their efforts towards a greener urban environment The Award's objectives are threefold, namely by sharing experiences and promoting best to: a) reward cities that have a well-established practice among European cities and beyond. record of achieving high environmental objectives, The indicator areas Evaluation of the cities' efforts is based upon b) encourage cities to commit to ambitious the following 10 environmental indicator areas: goals for further environmental improvement - Local contribution to global climate and sustainable development, and change c) provide a role model to inspire other cities - Local mobility and passenger and promote best practices and experiences in transportation all other European cities. - Availability of local public open areas - Quality of local ambient air All cities from EU Member States, Candidate - Noise pollution Countries and European Economic Area - Waste production and management countries which have more than 200,000 - Water consumption inhabitants can apply for the award. - Waste water management - Environmental management of the local Read more at: www.europeangreencapital.eu. authority - Sustainable land use. 4 The 35 applicant cities for 2010 & 2011 Evaluation of the 2010 & 2011 applications Applicant cities 2010 and 2011 awards In 2009, the first evaluation round took place in order to select Europe's Green capitals for 2010 and 2011. Amsterdam, Netherlands • Bordeaux, France Thirty-five cities, covering 17 European • Bremen, Germany countries, applied for the 2010 and 2011 • Bristol, United Kingdom European Green Capital Awards. • Cluj-Napoca, Romania The applicant cities sent applications • Copenhagen, Denmark describing results achieved, measures taken • Dublin, Ireland and short and long term commitments for each • Espoo, Finland indicator area, as well as their proposed • Freiburg, Germany programs of actions and events to disseminate • Hamburg, Germany experiences and best practices. • Hannover, Germany • Helsinki, Finland The eight finalist cities • Kaunas, Lithuania The data produced by the 35 applicant cities • Lisbon, Portugal was assessed by the Evaluation Panel with the specific purpose of selecting eight finalist cities. Łódź, Poland Various methods of evaluation (quantitative • Magdeburg, Germany and qualitative, objective comparisons or • Malmø, Sweden individual expert assessments, final cross • Munich, Germany check evaluations, etc.) were applied by the • Murcia, Spain Evaluation Panel to analyze the data. • Münster, Germany • Oslo, Norway The eight finalists were: • Pamplona, Spain Amsterdam • Prague, Czech Republic Bristol • Riga, Latvia Copenhagen • Rotterdam, Netherlands Freiburg • Sabadell, Spain Hamburg • Stockholm, Sweden Muenster • Tampere, Finland Oslo • Toruń, Poland Stockholm • Valencia, Spain • Vienna, Austria On the basis of an additional transparent • Montpellier, France evaluation process, the European Green • Vilnius, Lithuania Capital Award Jury made their final decision • Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain and announced the City of Stockholm as the • Zaragoza, Spain 2010 European Green Capital, and the City of Hamburg as the Award winner for 2011. 5 The aim of this report “benchmarking” approach has been avoided. The aim of this report is to make the data from The reporting activity was structured towards the finalists' applications available to other producing as much useful information as cities in a systematic manner in order to inspire possible with the available data. and provide them with ambitious benchmarks. This has been done by: - In depth analysis and reporting on the eight finalists' achievements, goals and practices in a useful manner; - Providing evidence on the best results and highlighting the best practices, in order to promote positive competition aiming to achieve the most ambitious goals possible; - Reporting the available quantitative data in a clear manner, with tables and graphs and, where possible, with appropriate comparisons; - Integrating quantitative data with qualitative descriptions of good practices, in a manner that inspires other cities. Structure and approach of this report The report is organized in eight Chapters (eight and not ten), because the analysis of four indicator areas, Local public open areas / Sustainable land Use and Water consumption / Waste water management have been integrated into two chapters). Policies are described with qualitative information, and a selection of local, best practices developed by the eight cities are highlighted. The report elaborates on the data which was presented by cities in accordance with the Award application forms and on additional documentation provided during the evaluation rounds. In a few cases, where data provided by cities was not comparable, (e.g. different years or units of measure, only qualitative answers available, etc.), other data sources (e.g. EEA or Eurostat) have been used, or the 6 Oslo is the city which shows the lowest CO2 2. LOCAL CONTRIBUTION per capita emission (2.4 t/inh). This data may TO GLOBAL CLIMATE be explained by the widespread use of CHANGE electricity based on hydropower, a district heating system based to a large degree on heat derived from waste incineration, and a well developed, rail-based public transport Introduction Climate change is at the top of the World global system. Agenda. EU has set ambitious targets (20-20- Oslo is followed by Stockholm where the per 20 climate and energy package1) and cities are capita emissions of 5.4 t registered in 1990 to play an important role in meeting these decreased to 4.0 t/inh in 2005. Part of this targets. improvement can be related to the transport sector, where the emissions decreased from Local policies aiming to reduce CO2 emissions and increase energy efficiency and renewable 1.6 to 1.3 tonnes per capita between 1990 and uses, generally part of city strategy, are already 2005. This is again thanks to the low car share in place in the form of activities to reduce and of the modal split (this is further explained in avoid air pollution, reduce car congestion, the next